H/HPS 186
From Plato to Pluto: Maps, Exploration and Culture from Antiquity to the Present
From Plato to Pluto: Maps, Exploration and Culture from Antiquity to the Present
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course covers a broad range of topics in the history of maps and exploration from Antiquity to the present. These topics range from the earliest visualizations of earth and space in the Classical world to contemporary techniques in interplanetary navigation. By way of maps, students will explore various ways in which different cultures have conceptualized and navigated earth and space. While maps emulate the world as perceived by the human eye, they, in fact, comprise a set of observations and perceptions of the relationship between bodies in space and time. Thus, students will study maps, and the exploration they enable, as windows to the cultures that have produced them, not only as scientific and technical artifacts to measure and navigate our world.
Instructors:
Wey-Gomez, Ceva